


Lessons unlearned

by Gallavantula



Category: Ghost - Mystery Skulls (Music Video)
Genre: Another incident, Ordinary day, Regular daily life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-04-06 04:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4207314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gallavantula/pseuds/Gallavantula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another regular occurence goes down at the Tome Tomb, and... Duet is actually disgruntled by this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons unlearned

It’s another regular morning of travel for her. The post man is on his route and so she greets him, and he smiles and waves back. The coffee shop in front of the bus stop is empty before the rush, so she grabs a bagel, sits on the bench and fingers her metropass. The old thing pulls in, straggles in the back seats and Vivi hops on with a flash of her card, grabbing the seat where she can sit before the double seating but keep her single space to herself. 

The ride is only twenty minutes, so her phone loses ten percent battery talking to her friends about the game tonight at Siobhan’s house. Vivi’s stop is called and her head jumps up, nearly forgetting to tug the yellow string for her request and scurries to the door. She hopes her shift will go well, and the calm will give her time to chat on her phone some more. Though as she gets off and walks the five minutes to the store front, she sees her boss and Chloé both standing there. 

Her worry pings high and her heels click as Vivi scurries closer, and Duet seems to sigh and hunch over a broad mirror held to their chest as Chloé turns to spot her. Though the shorter woman waves, it’s jerky and more of a flinch than anything else. 

“Good, uh, morning…” The usually energetic woman greets, her green sleeve bunched and tight in her hidden hand. The wings on her head wiggled and slumped, showing her bad mood more than her voice did. Uh oh. She’s looking them both over, and it seems their cloths are still dripping, and Chloé’s blond wig is slumped and leaking onto her shoulders and cowl. Duet’s using their poncho to lightly weave circles over their rescued mirror, reverently drying it as they stare at their store.

“Good morning…” Is Vivi’s hesitant reply, glancing to the store… and nearly dropping her bag. Inside the glass like some magician’s trick sat water, pond water that filled the whole store front with bubbles and light sloshing. Staring her straight in the eyes is the long, thin face of a damn Musky, and her heart goes cold. “What in Sam’s Hell is going on?” She peeps worriedly, and the whine from Chloé singles out the perpetrator. Duet’s yellow eye is watching them both sharply, and Vivi knew`that they were furious. 

“Someone…” Their soft voice started, glancing to the seventeen inch fish staring them down like they could all be it’s meal. “Read from my manual without request.” Duet murmured, and Chloe hissed loudly, gnashing her teeth and stomping her foot with a crossing of her arms.

“It was a damn maudit accident, d’accord? I was just, esti, curieuse, okay?” The woman barks, and Duet does not flinch nor react in turn to the aggression. An old couple wandered by, not once turning towards the book shop to see the possible anomaly that was supernatural through and through. It always made Vivi wonder what spells were put up on the shop to get away with sudden accidents like this. 

“Oh sins, Duet, what happens now?” Vivi murmurs, securing her bag over her shoulder and watching as a school of minnow swam by the Musky’s face. It barely reacted before it’s gills spread, and the spear of it’s head turned to start the hunt. Fuckin’ incredible. Not just water from the floor to over the doorframe, but a musky that could tear off their arms and eat every finger like it was a snack. She hated that fish. 

“Well, there was hope for the spell to revert, and the water to leave.” Duet continues to murmur, but Vivi had worked with them for nearly five years. A single glance to their throat just beneath the cloak of their hair and the tension in the muscle of their throat told her that the anger they were feeling was very close to the surface now. 

“C’est presque, been nearly fifteen minutes.” Chloé adds unhelpfully, and even just an inch of movement from Duet’s head towards her has her flinch back with nerves. Their eye was quite cross, and even Vivi found herself swallowing for calm. 

“Then we wait fifteen more. Half hour spells are a possibility.” Duet clips, and their hands tightened the mirror to their chest with an exhale of breath. Perhaps… they had been yelling earlier. The way Chloé shifted and ground her toes into the concrete, the more inclined she is to believe it.

“Fine.” Comes the agreement in grumble form, and the young woman sighed. More than anything she knew that the clock was still ticking and thus work was still important, despite being… out of the store. The three of them remained gathered, watching the slow churn of algae and reeds circulate the lobby. It was all sloshing over the counter and register, curling into the mirror frames and generally spreading the mess onto every surface it could. 

Chloé bemoaned the loss of her phone a few times too many and Duet kissed their teeth to silence her, but the little woman needed a distraction and eventually Vivi relented and handed over her phone. She worried that new app games would be downloaded onto it, but to keep Chloé from blowing up and yelling just to cure her boredom… well, this was a better cure for it.  
Vivi eventually sat against a tree block of concrete, scooting her skirt and just… staring at the window pane with longing. Sometimes… working here could really bugger things up. Incidents like these could be called common, since Duet’s shop garnered strange visitors. The team leader used the space like a reference library, and working there gave her the chance at exclusives and material that would be hard to find anywhere else. 

But… as Chloé begins to sing along to the tune of one of the new games she downloaded, Vivi sighed and looked as a crawdad crawled up onto the register and sat there, pincers held aloft like a victory pose. Sometimes, things just didn’t make store floods worth it. 

“Duet…” She spoke softly, turning her head to regard her boss, who turned to look at her with far less anger than before. Good. Duet was usually very reasonable. Perhaps seeing everything soggy simply left them feeling out. 

“Yes, Viviane?” They murmur, and Chloé has nothing to offer from her seat on the concrete lip. 

“Will we, be mopping the whole shift, and throwing out books?” The question, really, is to prepare herself for the worst. Duet simply shook their head, peering through the glass and allowing their shoulders to relax, closing their eye a moment. 

“If this spell works as we assume it shall, the water should be removed with all traces in the next five minutes.” Their hand lightly roved over the mirror again, and Vivi nodded and thought nothing of it. The mirrors were important heirlooms to Duet, so she… understood why they were so protective over them. 

“Alright…” She relents, turning to look down the street for the sun, and pouts that she’s going to be baking in it for a few minutes longer. It’s as she turns back to the store that the familiar camouflage stripes of brown and swamp green reach her eyes, and the ugly Musky was back, and seemed to find interest in watching her. Damnit, this fish always unsettled her so much. She stuck out her tongue at it, like it wouldn’t do anything but the fish’s eyes dilated and seemed to come in closer to the glass.

“You are just damn ugly.” Vivi murmurs with sympathy, but the fish moves in just a little closer and nearly touches the glass. “Why… I’m blue, and you are just ugly.” There’s a soft sound from Duet, and her eyes glance to them… to see the small smile on their face. Oh, not fair at all! That thing makes them smile? She just chuckles, shaking her head lightly and the current changes inside, and the fish angles it’s fins and body to remain immobile. Now that, was kind of cool. 

Her eyes followed the length of this predator, this feat of nature that managed to even give fishers a run for their money swimming harmlessly behind that thick front of glass. It’s spear shaped face had so many teeth that seemed yellowed and blackened, though it was interesting to look at, and as she stuck her tongue out again it pressed up into the flat surface like it forgot it was there. She’s giggling, amused as all hell to have tricked the fish without any effort. 

Then, something trembles in the ground. Vivi is alert, sitting up and coming to stand beside Duet, all the while a blue light glimmered from inside the store, and pierced through the murky waters. The Musky followed her, swimming against the sudden current as water churned and rushed, aggressively spinning and splashing up as the level began to steady lower. There’s a rumbling that increases with the sound of suction and static, and Vivi watches with amazement as the store lost a foot of water in twenty seconds. 

Together, they both observe with fascination as the crawdad was caught up and carried away, algae and reeds spinning and crumpling beneath the current and being drawn out. The Musky swam furiously, it’s maw parted to absorb more water through it’s gills and the thing’s very real speed and skill are put into display to stay immobile despite the storm around it. Soon, half the store is clear, and the fish is suddenly pulled from the nose up and spins like a plank of wood before it was gone into the beams of blue shimmering light. 

A young woman walks her poodle in front of them, completely oblivious to the happenings just beside her and simply grooms her blond hair back, heels clicking along with the little gruff sounds of her dog. Vivi simply beams, still observing the magic at work in front of her. No dripping water came from the clear sections above, and the books seemed as good as new as the water finally sank beneath the wooden leveller beneath the pane of glass, and she watched as it moved like some slime monster along the floor, into the light and with a shudder it all stopped.

In it’s place a book floated for just a mere moment in their vision before dropping to the floor. Duet flinched upon it’s landing, and even Vivi could see that a page had been landed on and bent. Oh, dear. 

“Let’s go.” Duet murmurs, striding up to the store and opening their door. The bells ring their eerie chiming tune that Vivi was still not used to and their steps landed on solid, strong wood. Not a single drop of moisture to be seen. Without thinking she follows them inside, standing aside as they gather their book and preform comfort and care on the bent page. It’s a few moments before a sound of protest goes off, and Chloé rushes into the store with Vivi’s phone on the loudest sound setting possible.

“Ey, tu m’as-“ She starts, but Duet is turning around, showing the little tear in the page and their yellow eye seems gold and hard as it looks at her. She chokes and swallows her words, silent and instantly turning off the phone to sleep mode to hand it back to Vivi. There is no thank you, but the older woman has learned not to really expect one. Chloé is still learning that basic politeness. 

“Well, the spell seems to have reverted fully.” Duet says at last, stepping behind the counter to hang up the mirror they saved and wipes it down once more. Chloé huffs and rushes to the back room, wanting to grab her phone and finally take off for the day. It’s a few moments before she’s back, her bag that had more pins on it than bag surface anymore and she gives another salutation in some language that definitely wasn’t proper Japanese in the slightest before shoving the door open and taking off.

“Did she…?” Vivi starts, but it’s such a habitual conversation that Duet does smile a little, towards their reflection as they pet over the frame again.

“Forget to tag off? Yes.” Duet replies seemlessly, and steps in behind the register to punch the younger woman out. “And it’s done.”

“Thanks Duet. I’ll be another minute, putting my stuff away.” She answers, turning around to go to the back room and there’s a gentle, slightly deeper chuckle from behind her. 

“Take your time.” Comes Duet’s soft reply, and a little glance behind her before she turns the corner… yep. The part changed side again. Hm. Vivi strode to the back, again assured that somehow, something was afoot with Duet.


End file.
